Tanya
by crematosis
Summary: After Tony is accidentally sucked into a time portal and a little girl tumbles out, the team is forced to reevaluate what they know about Tony.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: This is going to be another long, angst and fluff, and horrifying drama story. I can just feel it. Not to spoil too much for you guys, but there's going to be talk of involuntary medical procedures, child abuse, Howard's bad parenting ratcheted up to 11. If you're squeamish about that kind of thing, you might want to get out now. But for the rest of you, enjoy the angst!

Disclaimer: This is another avengerkink fill so the general plot is not mine. I just filled in the specifics.

It was so wonderful to finally have Bucky back. All of him.

For so long, he had seemed like nothing more than an empty shell, like a robot wearing Bucky's face. But gradually, Bucky's memories had started returning and with them, his personality.

Now Steve genuinely felt like he belonged here in the future. The Avengers weren't the Howling Commandos, but they were really starting to function as a team, to work together as well as the Commandos had. And crashing in the den after a successful mission brought back warm memories of sitting around the campfire with his men, swapping stories.

The team had welcomed Bucky into their midst as if he had always been one of them. Natasha and Clint regularly sparred with him in the gym. Bruce shared some of his favorite recipes with him. And in between Thor's countless retelling of his glorious battles in Asgard, Bucky was beginning to offer tales of their exploits during the war.

It really was heartwarming to see the entire team taking the time to come together like a family.

Except for Tony.

"-and so there we were, fifteen Hydra grunts on our tail," Bucky said, flashing Steve a grin. "But we had this bazooka Howard Stark had modified for us out of-"

Tony snorted derisively. "Didn't happen. My dad never built guns, just bombs. "

"Oh," Bucky said. His smile wavered and doubt started to creep into his eyes. "I could have sworn it was a gun." His brow furrowed and he looked into the distance, seemingly deep in thought. "Was it really a bomb?" he murmured.

"It was a gun," Steve said firmly. "I watched him make it."

He shot Tony a glare. Bucky didn't need anyone undermining his recovery.

"Of course you did." Tony leaned back in his seat and took another gulp of his whiskey. "Bet you watched him make every single weapon he ever gave you. Because everything he did was just so fascinating and amazing. Nothing like the boring stuff we have here in the future, right?"

And just like that, the peaceful atmosphere was shattered. Instead of laughing with each other, the rest of the team had gone silent. Steve could feel the tension in the air and see the apprehension in Bruce's face.

"We've all had a long day," Natasha said carefully. "Maybe we should just call it a night."

"Hell no," Tony said. "I want to hear the rest of this story. Don't we all? Howard Stark builds a fucking gun, and then what? A bigger gun, maybe? Whoa, what a plot twist. Gee, Barnes, that sure was an exciting story. Maybe next week we can hear Steve's side of it. And I'm sure he can tell us all about that bazooka down to the last detail. Because he watched it being made, remember? Boy, after all that time kissing my dad's ass, it's amazing he had any time for that girl of his."

Steve rose to his feet, controlling his anger with great difficulty. "That's enough," he said. "You're calling it a night. Right now."

Tony scoffed. "You gonna make me?"

"Yes," Steve said. He hauled Tony to his feet. "Bed. March."

Tony rolled his eyes. "I'm not a child."

"Well, you're acting like one," Steve said. He gave Tony a shove in the direction of the elevator. "Get going."

"I'm calling it an early night, too," Bruce said. He slipped out of the room and headed for the stairs.

Natasha was right behind him.

"Fucking cowards," Tony called after them.

Steve grabbed Tony by the shoulders and shoved him up against the wall. "You need to stop," he said. "We're not your enemies."

"You're my dad's friend. Which is pretty much the same thing. You heard about Obadiah Stane, right? Dad's old business partner? Tried to fucking kill me."

"Nobody in this tower is going to kill you," Steve said. "And you know that."

"Right. We're all too polite here for murder. We'd rather just beat the hell out of each other and call it a night." He tipped his head to one side and patted his cheek. "Come on, big guy. Giving you a free shot."

"You're drunk," Steve said. "So I'm going to pretend you didn't mean a single word you said tonight. But next time you're an asshole to Bucky, yes, I will punch you." He released Tony's shoulders. "Sleep it off. I'll see you in the morning."

"Yes, sir," Tony said with a sarcastic salute. He stumbled backwards into the elevator and the doors closed in on him.

Steve didn't see Tony the next morning at breakfast. Not that he had really expected to. After how drunk Tony had been, he probably wasn't even going to get out of bed until noon. And if he remembered even half of the things he had said, he'd probably avoid everyone until the next Avengers call.

Natasha slid into the seat at the table across from Steve. "I haven't seen him that drunk in awhile," she said. "It's not a good sign."

Steve shook his head. "I don't know what's gotten into him lately."

He and Tony had never been the best of friends, but they had gotten along pretty well in the years after the Battle of New York. Now it was like all that time was erased and they were back on the helicarrier again arguing with each other.

"It's probably my fault," Bucky said. "You two got on so much better before I showed up."

"Not true," Steve said.

For the first few months Bucky was with them, Tony hadn't been this hostile. He had made one weirdly insensitive comment about Bucky's long hair, insisting that he needed to have it cut so he wouldn't look like a girl. But he had also eagerly fixed Bucky's arm, and given him a whole slew of nicknames. And if Steve knew anything about Tony, all those silly nicknames were his way of showing affection.

It was only in the past few weeks that Tony had really started acting up, getting combative during missions and spending the evenings either avoiding the team gathering in the den or just dampening the mood with his attitude. Yesterday had been by far the worst, but Steve was afraid Tony's behavior was just going to keep escalating. And he had no idea what was even setting him off.

"If I may," Jarvis said. "This year will be the twenty-fifth anniversary of his parents' death. Sir is expected to make a statement in remembrance of his father sometime next week."

"Oh shit," Bucky said.

Steve squeezed his eyes shut. Of course this would be an emotional time for Tony. And instead of turning to the team for help, he was pushing them all away.

"Thanks, Jarvis," he said. "Let me know when he gets up so we can have a little heart to heart."

"Sir is already awake and downstairs in the lab," Jarvis said. "But he may be too inebriated to fully appreciate your message."

"Well, I have to try anyway," Steve said. Because if Tony was starting every morning drunk to cope with the pain, it was long past time for an intervention.

"Very well, Captain," Jarvis said. "I have left the doors unlocked."

Good. Steve pushed aside his plate of eggs and headed downstairs.

Tony was sprawled on the floor next to one of his worktables, half a bottle of scotch clutched in his hands. He looked up at Steve's entrance, his eyes glassy and unfocused. "Oh, hey. Guess you're here for the lecture," he mumbled.

"No lecture," Steve said. "I come as a friend." He crouched down beside Tony and gently eased the bottle of scotch out of his hands. "A friend who's concerned about your health."

"Don't worry about it. My liver's seen a lot worse," Tony said. He made grabby hands for the bottle.

"Your mental health," Steve said, maneuvering the bottle further out of reach. "Jarvis told me about the statement you're making about Howard."

"Oh, yeah. That." Tony gestured up at the bench. "Got this wonderful canned speech right here. All of Dad's greatest achievements and not a single mention of what a goddamn asshole he was to me growing up. I bet you still think he was the awesomest man alive because of all the cool shit he made you. But let me tell you, he was the world's shittiest father. Always on about you. And I could never compare to that, you know. How the hell could I? You have the supersoldier serum and I was born, well, I was born a failure."

"You're not a failure," Steve said. "I'm sorry if Howard ever said that to you. He shouldn't have. And he should have never made you feel like you had to live up to my accomplishments. Captain America was supposed to be a role model for doing the right thing, not some impossible standard you could never live up to." He shook his head. "I wish Howard had paid attention to what we were really fighting for."

Tony snorted derisively. "Yeah, tell that to everyone who thought Dad was some big saint just for being in the war. How dare I have anything negative to say about him because he's a fucking war hero and that means he's absolutely perfect and can do no wrong. Fuck the war. Maybe Dad should have died in it."

"You don't mean that," Steve said. "You would have never been born."

Tony shrugged. "Maybe it would have been for the best. I'm sure that's how he felt sometimes."

"Come on," Steve said. "He's been dead for twenty-five years. You need to stop letting him dictate your life."

"I can't," Tony hissed. "He made sure of that. Made sure I was the perfect son that he always wanted."

"Tony, you're-"

"There is an incoming alert from Director Fury," Jarvis said.

"Fuck." Tony heaved himself to his feet. "Jarvis, gimme a suit."

"That would be inadvisable, Sir. You are currently-"

"Oh, don't give me that shit. I've done half a dozen drunken joyrides by now and I've survived just fine."

Steve was horrified. "Tony, you shouldn't play around with this kind of technology. You could get yourself killed. Especially in the middle of a battle."

"I appreciate your concern," Tony drawled. "But if I die, I die. And it won't make a fucking difference." He gestured impatiently with one hand. "Jarvis, suit. Now."

"Tony, you're not-"

"Don't you fucking dare tell me I'm not good enough to help save the world," Tony snarled as the suit snapped into place around him. "Even a failure like me can do his part."

Steve sighed as Tony dropped down through the secret door into the underground garage. In a matter of seconds, Tony would be out of the Tower, flying into battle. And there was nothing he could do to stop him.

"Suit up, team," he said into the comm. "Take-off's in five."

Not that anyone needed the whole five minutes to get ready. Everyone was pretty much ready in two minutes flat. Even Steve, who needed to run back upstairs to grab his gear was on the jet before the five minutes were up.

And Tony was still giving them grief about it.

"Took you long enough," Tony grumbled as the Quinjet swooped down over Battery Park. "Would it kill you all to leave your shit on the jet so it's ready to go?"

"And would it kill you to wait for the rest of us?" Steve shot back.

From what he could see, Tony wasn't in any real danger. No fire and explosions and no villain of the day causing trouble. He studied the mission briefing on his tablet. According to Fury, some mysterious structure had appeared in the middle of the night and it was suspected to be another magical artifact. So, they were supposed to be on scene in case anything popped out.

"Set her down, Clint," he said. "Let's check it out."

The object turned out to be a huge metal circle sitting on a raised platform. It didn't exactly look like a magical artifact. It was entirely man-made, judging by the wires Steve saw connected to the circle. But then again, there was nothing that said it wasn't powered by magic. He had seen enough weaponized magic in his day.

Bruce pulled out a Geiger meter and walked slowly around the structure checking for radiation before he considered it safe for the team to approach.

"What is this thing?" Steve asked. He cautiously ran a hand over the curved metal frame. So far, the thing was staying entirely dormant.

"Fuck if I know," Tony said as he came in for a landing. "Jarvis is running a material analysis right now."

"I've seen this type of thing before," Clint said. "Or something like it anyway. It looks just like one of those portals in _Big Hero 6_."

"That's a kid's movie," Tony scoffed.

"Sure, the kids love it, but it's so much more than just a kid's movie. We should watch it next movie night."

"Yeah, count me out," Tony said. "I'm only into adult entertainment."

Steve rolled his eyes. "What did the portal in _Big Hero 6_ do?"

Clint shrugged. "Basically teleported things from one place to another through a different dimension or something. But you'd want a second one for the things to come out of."

"Unless you don't want them coming back," said a voice behind them.

Everyone whirled around, weapons drawn.

The man that walked up was thin, balding, and almost blind judging by how thick his glasses were. But Steve knew better than to judge bases on appearances.

"Are you the one behind this thing?" Clint demanded.

The man smiled. "I am. And it's so nice of you all to come and investigate my little creation." His eyes gleamed. "I knew this would be the perfect lure. The perfect scheme for Hydra to finally finish the Avengers once and for all."

Bucky stiffened.

"Hydra will never win," Steve said determinedly. "We've destroyed enough of your bases by now. You should learn not to take us on."

"Oh, I admit that it has been very difficult to kill you. But if I send you back in time, I can let old age do the work for me." He tipped his head back and laughed. "Forty years should do the trick for most of you." He pressed a button on his belt and the portal began to hum, the air shimmering in the middle of the circle. "Enjoy, Avengers. I look forward to seeing you all as-aaaagh!"

Whatever he had been about to say was cut off when Bucky tackled him to the ground.

"Good," Tony said. "I was sick of hearing him talk."

Steve watched as Bucky wrestled the squirming Hydra agent into a chokehold."Since Bucky seems to have this guy covered, how about you figure out how to tear this thing apart so nobody else can try this scheme?"

"It's always up to me, isn't it?" Tony grumbled.

"I can lend a hand," Bruce offered.

"Good. The two of you work on that. Nat, can you call SHIELD and-"

"Tell them we inspected the area, caught the man responsible, and are neutralizing the threat?" she asked with a smile.

"Yes, good. All of that. Have them send somebody to pick this guy up."

He watched as the man's struggles became more and more feeble. When Bucky finally released him, he just flopped to the ground and didn't move. Steve wasn't concerned. The man was just out cold for a few minutes. They were way past the days when he had to tell Bucky to let go before he killed someone.

Steve frowned. The man wasn't moving any longer, but the flashing button on his belt certainly was. He looked up in alarm as the portal's hum got louder, the air inside the circle churning like waves.

"Turn if off, Buck," he ordered.

"I can't," Bucky said. He jabbed the button a few times without luck. "Thing only comes with an on switch."

Steve raised his voice to be heard over the rapidly intensifying humming noise and the sound of the air rushing past. "Bruce, Tony. You two have any ideas?"

"The portal's destabilizing," Bruce shouted back. "Looks like it's going to collapse in on itself."

"Okay, everyone clear the area," Steve commanded. He took a large step back and quickly scanned the area for civilians.

There was no telling what would happen once the portal collapsed. Hopefully it would just swallow itself up and fall apart. But he had seen so many movies about malfunctioning technology sucking in everything around it before exploding like a supernova. And there was no telling how big the blast radius would be if it really exploded.

Tony hovered a few feet overhead. "I could probably power it down before it explodes."

"No, too risky."

"You wanted the thing turned off, didn't you? Well, I'll turn it off. We'd all rather have a functional time portal than a pile of junk, right?"

"Speak for yourself," Clint said. "Would you really want to go forty years into the past?"

"Forty years ago. I would have been...I would have been five," Tony murmured so quietly that Steve doubted he meant anyone to hear him. But the comm picked up just about everything.

"Get out of there, Stark," Steve said as Tony drifted downwards, apparently still lost in thought.

Tony straightened into a take-off position, but continued drifting downwards. "Uh, big problem," he said. "The energy readings this thing gives off is fucking with my tech."

And then the portal's metal frame began rocking back and forth, what appeared to be lightning flickered in the air. Tony yelped as he abruptly dropped two feet through the air.

"No, this cannot be happening," Tony said. "Damnit, Jarvis, give me more power." His repulsors looked like they were firing at full power, but he was making no progress escaping from the portal's pull.

Steve watched in alarm as cracks started appearing in Tony's armor, little fissures that started by his feet and went all the way up to his thighs. "Tony, get out of there right now."

"I can't," Tony said. "I-oh shit." The repulsors on Tony's feet went out and he flew backwards into the portal, feet-first.

"Tony, no!" Steve shouted. He lunged forward and grabbed onto one of Tony's gauntlets.

"Shit, shit, shit," Tony said. "It's shredding my suit."

"We have a lot more to worry about than your suit right now," Steve snapped. Tony was up to his shoulders in the portal. And even with Steve trying his hardest to pull him back out, inch after inch of Tony's body was disappearing through the shimmering air.

"Steve, please," Tony gasped out. "It's going to suck you in, too."

"I don't care," Steve said. "I'm not letting go." He ducked as another piece of Tony's armor chipped away, revealing part of Tony's neck. And then the helmet cracked open.

He had a brief glimpse of Tony's terrified face before it disappeared behind the portal.

All that Steve could see of Tony now was his gauntlet. And not for much longer. Already he could see his own fingertips disappearing through the portal. But he kept holding on.

Tony's gauntlet was coming apart under the pressure, pieces sloughing off as easily as dead skin. Steve struggled to keep hold of him, clamping one hand around the genius' bare wrist. Impossibly, he found himself having to keep tightening his grip just to keep hold of him, as if Tony's wrist was shrinking smaller by the second. And little by little, Tony was slipping out of his grasp.

But then he felt Bucky's arms wrapping around his waist, anchoring him in place. He dug his heels into the ground and tugged backward with all his strength.

There was a sickening metal screech and then they all went flying backwards as the portal exploded. Steve hit his head against a rock and was knocked out for a moment. When he came to, Bucky was dazedly struggling to his feet, a little trickle of blood oozing from his forehead. But it could have been worse.

Steve sat up and surveyed the rest of the team. "Where's Tony?"

Clint shook his head grimly.

"No," Steve said. "That's not possible. I had him. I pulled him out before the thing exploded."

"Nope," Clint said. He pointed towards the playground. "You pulled her out instead."

Steve followed his gaze. At first he saw an empty playground. But then he spotted the dark-haired girl crouched behind a bench. His heart sank.

"Well, this is great," Bucky said. "We lost Tony somewhere in the seventies and we pulled this girl into the modern world. Way to go, Steve. Now the whole space-time continuum or whatever is going to be fucked."

"But I had him," Steve said. He looked down at his hands, remembering how small Tony's hand had felt in his. "It doesn't make any sense."

"Nothing makes sense these days," Bruce said. He picked at a piece of the machine's remains. "But I think I might be able to fix this and make everything right again. In the meantime, we have to figure out who this little girl is and when and where she came from so we can send her back. And she'll have to stay with us until I get this repaired. We don't want to mess up the timeline any more than we already have."

Steve nodded. "Okay, team. Let's do this." He headed towards the playground, most of the team following behind him.

The little girl shrieked and ran across the playground, diving under the slide. "Go away," she said. "I don't have any money."

"We don't want your money," Clint said. "We just want to talk."

"I don't know anything," she said. "Daddy's projects are secret. He doesn't even let me down in his lab."

"We don't care about that either," Bucky said.

"Back up," Natasha said. "Give the poor girl some room."

Clint huffed, but everyone took a few steps back.

Natasha knelt down beside the slide. "It's okay, sweetheart," she said. "We're not going to hurt you."

"Then why are you all dressed up like evil goons?"

Natasha's mouth twitched. "We're not evil goons," she said. "We're secret agents. We work for an organization called SHIELD."

The little girl nodded eagerly. "So does my daddy."

"Good," Natasha said. "Then you know we're the good guys." She held out a hand. "My name's Natasha. What's yours?"

"Tanya."

"Nice to meet you, Tanya. These are my friends," Natasha said, gesturing to the rest of the team. "We're all going to work together to make sure you get back to your family. This is Steve." She motioned for Steve to step forward. "He's-"

"Captain America," Tanya said, her eyes wide with awe. "You're amazing."

"Well, I try," Steve said with a smile.

Tanya crawled out from under the slide and took a tentative step forward. "I can't believe you're really here. Daddy said your plane went down in the ocean and nobody could find you."

"He's right," Steve said. "But eventually, people found me and rescued me. And now I'm here."

"I can't wait to tell Daddy," she said with a wide smile. "He'll be so happy to see you again."

"Your dad wouldn't happen to be Howard Stark, would he?"

Her eyes widened. "How did you know?"

Steve chuckled. "Just a lucky guess."

"Odd," Clint said. "Tony never mentioned having a sister."

Natasha shook her head. "It's not in his file."

"What file?" Tanya asked. "Do you have files on everybody like the FBI? Do you spy on people with binoculars and find out all their secrets?"

"Not exactly," Natasha said. "But we have gone on a few undercover missions to get intelligence. This is my partner, Clint. He goes by Hawkeye in the field."

"Because he's like the guy in M.A.S.H?"

"Uh, no," Clint said. "I'm an archer, not a doctor." He notched an arrow in his bow and casually aimed upwards. A pigeon plummeted to the ground at his feet.

"Whoa," Tanya said.

"And that's why the call me Hawkeye," Clint said as he stowed his bow. "Best shot in SHIELD."

Natasha rolled her eyes. "Don't mind his theatrics." She turned to Bruce. "This is Dr. Banner, our resident scientist. He's going to reconstruct the portal that brought you here and get you back home."

Tanya solemnly shook his hand. "You must not be very good if Daddy hasn't talked about you."

Steve sighed. There was that good old Stark sensitivity. It had to be genetic.

To his credit, Bruce just smiled faintly and said, "I hope you change your mind when I get this thing running again."

"And this is Thor. He's uh, he's a Norse god from the planet Asgard." Natasha frowned. "It's kind of a long story."

"Greetings, small one," Thor said. "I am very fond of your attire."

"Oh, this?" Tanya grabbed hold of the hem of her short pink dress. "This is just my play dress. Daddy doesn't like me wearing it around the house so I can only put it on when I'm playing in the yard."

"It is still a very beautiful garment," Thor said. "A most flattering shade."

"Ballerina pink," Tanya said. She spun in a circle, the dress fanning out around her. "I want to be a ballerina when I grow up."

"I am sure you will be a most excellent ballerina," Thor assured her.

Natasha cleared her throat."And this is Bucky," she said. "If you've heard of Captain America, you've heard of his best friend, right?"

Tanya frowned. "Daddy told me Bucky died." Her eyes traveled over Bucky's metal arm. "Is he a robotic replica?"

"Nope," Bucky said. He flexed his mechanical hand. "Just a cyborg."

"Wow. I don't know why Daddy always wants to talk about Captain America when you're so much cooler. No offense," she said with a quick glance at Steve.

Bucky chuckled. "I was just a normal guy back in the day. The arm came later."

Tanya tentatively reached out a hand. "Can I touch it?"

"Of course." Bucky squatted down and let Tanya run her hand all the way from his fingertips to the attachment at his shoulder.

She squealed with delight. "This is so cool." She moved back to Bucky's hand, turning it over so she could trace a finger over his palm. "I've never seen anything like this before."

Bucky twitched. "That tickles," he said.

Her eyes went wider. "You can feel things through the metal?" She made another more frenzied examination of Bucky's arm. "How does that even work? How is it connected to your nervous system? What is this even made of?"

"I don't know," Bucky said with a snort. "I didn't make it. You'd have to ask..." He faltered.

"We can show you the schematics in our lab," Bruce assured her.

Tanya smiled wide and bright. "I can actually come see your lab? Daddy's always afraid I'll break stuff so he never lets me watch. And it's so unfair. How am I ever going to be an engineer when I grow up if I don't get practice in a real lab?"

"I thought you wanted to be a ballerina," Clint said.

"I do. But I also want to be an engineer. Can't I be both?"

"Of course you can," Steve said. He was already growing fond of this sassy little girl. It was really too bad that Howard had decided to put the weight of all his expectations on Tony.

Thor lifted up his hammer. "Come with me, little one. We shall take to the skies."

"I don't think that's a good idea," Steve cautioned. "Too dangerous."

But Tanya had already scrabbled up onto Thor's shoulder. "Can I braid your hair when we get to your place?" she asked.

"I would be honored, little one."

She squealed and wrapped her arms around his neck. "You're my favorite."

"You can braid mine, too," Bucky offered.

"Awesome," she said. "First I'll check out the lab. Then I'll braid Thor's hair. And then yours." She flashed them all a smile. "Don't worry. I'll make you all really pretty."

Bucky laughed and shook his head as Thor took off into the skies, Tanya whooping with joy as she clung to his arm. "Bet you wish you had long hair now, don't you?"

"Nah, I'd look ridiculous," Steve said. He gave Bucky a side-eye. "Just like you will in a few hours."

Bucky shrugged as he vaulted up into the Quinjet's hold. "It'll be worth it."

It would, Steve agreed. Whatever it took to keep Tanya happy until she could be sent back to her time.


	2. Chapter 2

The flight back to the Tower was uneventful. Steve had contacted Thor to confirm he and Tanya had both made it back safely. They had. And Thor assured him that Tanya was adjusting well to the modern world.

So when the jet landed, Natasha and Clint went up to their floors to stow their gear, Bruce pushed a cart full of the machine's remains into the lab's service elevator, and he and Bucky went to the common floor to watch a movie.

The elevator doors opened and Steve was greeted by the sight of Tanya running wild-eyed through the den.

"This is amazing!" she screamed. "All of it's amazing. I love this place!"

Steve pinched the bridge of his nose. "Adjusting well, Thor said."

"Oh, lighten up," Bucky said. "It's a lot to take in. You were probably just like this when you first came out of the ice."

Tanya pressed her hands against the flat-screen TV. "Look at the picture quality on this thing. Crystal clear."

"Oh yes," Steve drawled. "Exactly like this."

Bucky just snickered.

"Pardon my intrusion," Jarvis said. "But Dr. Banner has indicated it will be more than a week's time before he can get the portal fully operational. Miss Stark, may I take your measurements so that we may purchase a few necessary items of clothing for you?"

Tanya froze and looked around with an alarmed expression. "Who said that? Is someone spying on me for your files?" She backed into the corner beside the couch. "Are they still watching me?"

Steve sighed. "Jarvis, can you hold off for awhile?"

"Apologies," Jarvis said, and then fell silent.

Tanya poked her head around the couch. "Jarvis? Your butler's name is Jarvis? So is mine."

Steve smiled thinly. "What a coincidence."

Tanya climbed up on the couch and peered towards the ceiling. "How can he see me? There aren't any cameras."

"Jarvis is actually an A.I." Steve said. "He sees everything."

"Your butler's a robot? That's so cool."

"It's quite a bit more than that. Jarvis is programmed into all of the rooms in the Tower so he's pretty much part of the building. But he does function kind of like a butler, too. He talks with us and takes care of any problems we have."

"If you would like, I could demonstrate one of my functions," Jarvis offered.

"Yes, please," Tanya said excitedly.

"If you will remain still for a moment, I will scan your measurements into my database."

Tanya squeezed her eyes closed. "Okay, scan me."

"You are allowed to watch," Jarvis said with a touch of amusement in his voice.

"I don't want the lasers to hurt my eyes."

"They will not. You have my word."

Tanya opened her eyes and watched with fascination as a wide beam of red light shone down from the ceiling, momentarily enveloping her form.

"Scan completed," Jarvis said. The television screen flickered, switching to a display of Tanya's vital statistics. Eye color, hair color, height, weight, estimated clothing and shoe sizes were all shown on screen among other minor observable facts.

"Wow," Tanya said. "You can tell all that just by scanning me?"

"For more intimate details such as blood type, I require a sample of DNA," Jarvis said. "But I can make a fairly reasonable guess as to what that might be."

"We can probably wait on that," Steve said. "Getting her settled in here should be our first priority."

"Of course," Jarvis said. "There are a number of guest rooms on each of the floor and Young Miss Stark is welcome to choose whichever room she wants for the duration of her stay."

"Any room I want?" Tanya asked carefully.

"Any unoccupied room, of course. I can pull up a floor plan and indicate which bedrooms are currently occupied. Or one of the Avengers might like to give you a physical tour and show you the rooms."

"Oh yes, please." Tanya tugged eagerly at Bucky's metal arm. "I want you to show me everything."

Bucky offered Steve a shrug and a sheepish smile."Well, duty calls. I guess I'll see you in a couple hours."

"If you're not back by lunchtime, I'll send out a search party," Steve promised.

Once Bucky and Tanya disappeared into the elevator, he wandered over to the screen and peered at Tanya's measurements. "Jarvis, can you look up online retailers carrying clothing similar to something from Tanya's time?"

"Certainly," Jarvis said. After a momentary pause he said,"I have located several stores that sell either vintage clothing from the seventies or clothing influenced by the styles of the time. I will begin sorting through the material for anything in her size and have a few recommendations ready by the time she returns from her tour."

"Excellent," Steve said. "Thanks, Jarvis."

With her chin-length bob, Steve had assumed Tanya was a child of the late sixties instead of the seventies, but maybe he had gotten things mixed up in the abundance of pictures Natasha had shown him of how fashion had changed through the ages. Well, he supposed it didn't really matter at the moment. They could pin down the exact date she was taken from when they got the portal repaired.

While he was thinking about it, it was time to pay a visit to Bruce and see how the work was coming along.

Down in the lab, the machine's stand was set up in the corner, smaller pieces of metal were strewn across a table and twisted pieces of wiring were piled across another.

"How's it going?" Steve asked.

Bruce shrugged. "It's going." He picked through some of the pieces. "It's going to take awhile to get it all put back together. I'll have to replace some of the wiring, of course. Most of it's too damaged to be used again, but I need to at least go through all of it and figure out what it is before I replace it."

"You'll get it all taken care of eventually," Steve said. "I know you will. Don't overwork yourself, though. Tanya's doing just fine here. So there's no rush."

"Oh, I know," Bruce said. "It's just weird doing this all on my own. It's too quiet down here."

Steve squeezed his shoulder. "We'll get him back."

Bruce smiled ruefully. "It would have been nice to have his help. He would have loved working with this stuff."

"I know the rest of us aren't engineers," Steve said. "But if you need any help, let us know."

Bruce nodded. "I will."

If it came down to it, SHIELD could probably track down the villain's lair and get Bruce a copy of any blueprints for the portal's design. But that would take time to pull off. Better to let Bruce try to work things out on his own first.

Steve returned to the common floor and settled in the den to watch Braveheart while he waited for Bucky to get back from his tour.

Bucky reappeared halfway through the movie.

"Mission accomplished," he said with a messy salute. He dropped down onto the couch and propped his feet up on the armrest. "Fifty floors in fifty minutes. I think that has to set some kind of record."

"Fifty floors," Steve said incredulously. "Did you actually check out any of the rooms or just look at each floor from the elevator?"

"Hell no. We did the grand tour and everything. That girl can really move, though."

"So, where's she now?"

"Down on one of the lab floors with Bruce."

Steve smiled. "At the rate she moves, she'll probably be completely modernized by the time she comes up from the lab. That is, if she ever comes up. Bruce is a fellow scientist. How can the rest of us compare to that?"

"Easy," Bucky said. He loosened his ponytail and shook his hair out. "She may be a mini scientist, but she's still a little girl. And I have so much hair for her to play with."

Steve rolled his eyes. "You look like a damn shampoo commercial."

"You're just jealous of these luscious locks." Bucky made a show of flicking his hair back.

Steve elbowed him. "Okay, Mr. Herbal Essences. Why don't you take Tanya down a snack when you go for your makeover?"

Bucky rose from the couch. "I will. Just watch me."

Steve shook his head and settled back into his movie.

Ten minutes later, Bucky was back sprawling all across the couch.

"So, she wants pancakes for snack," he said with a theatrical sigh. "I don't know how to make pancakes."

"It's easy," Steve said. "There's a bottle of batter in the fridge. Just squeeze a little into a frying pan and try not to burn them this time. I still remember when you almost burned down your mother's place back in '37."

Bucky snorted. "You'll never let me live that one down, will you? Just you watch. These will be the best damn pancakes that ever were. And I'll definitely be her favorite now."

"Oh really?" Steve tugged on a strand of Bucky's hair. "I don't see a braid. Unless she decided you weren't worthy after all."

Bucky swatted his hand away. "She doesn't have any supplies yet. How the hell is she supposed to do my hair without those butterfly clips and sparkly hair bands?"

"Excuses, excuses," Steve said with a smile.

"I can put in an order for hair products as well," Jarvis said. "They can be here within the hour."

"And if she still won't braid you hair, I guess you'll have to admit you're not her favorite anymore," Steve said pleasantly.

Bucky huffed and stalked off to the kitchen.

As Steve had predicted, Tanya spent the rest of the afternoon down in the lab with Bruce. He ended up having to take lunch down to her, which reminded him of all the times he had had to bring something down to Tony. Tanya really was remarkably like him.

When the order of clothes arrived, that was enough to finally lure Tanya back upstairs. She gleefully tried on every single outfit Jarvis had ordered and put on a little fashion show for the team so they could admire her modeling. Jarvis had really done a good job picking things out for her since she seemed to like all of the clothes, but the bright yellow sundress and mint-green romper with matching headband seemed to be her favorites. Especially since she was still wearing the sundress when Natasha called everyone to dinner.

Most of the plates in the Tower were a little big for Tanya, so Natasha served her meal on a dessert plate.

Tanya bounced up and down in her seat. "Spaghetti!" she said happily. "It's my favorite. How did you know?"

"Lucky guess," Natasha said with a smile.

Or maybe more of a calculated guess since Tony loved anything Italian.

Steve watched as Tanya cut her meatballs and noodles into little pieces and took tiny, dainty bites. "You are such a careful eater," he said.

"Daddy always throws out my dresses when I get them dirty," Tanya explained. "He says if I want pretty things I need to learn to take care of them."

"We're not that strict," Steve assured her. "If you spill, we'll wash it."

Tanya beamed at him but kept eating painstakingly carefully anyway.

After dinner, Steve talked Tanya into putting on her new nightgown before she dragged Bucky and Thor into the den to braid their hair.

Natasha brought down a case of her makeup and nail polish. "I think we need to give the boys the full makeover experience, don't you?" she asked with a wink.

Clint took up a position on top of the couch with his cellphone in hand. "Oh, this is going to be good," he crowed.

Thor settled cross-legged on the floor. "I will be your first volunteer. Make me over as you wish."

Tanya selected a brush from the pile of hair products. "Don't worry," she told Thor. "I'm really good at this. My hair's hard to braid because it's so short, but Mommy let me practice on her a few times when Daddy wanted her to keep me busy."

"I trust in your skills," Thor proclaimed.

Tanya climbed into Thor's lap to reach his hair better. She carefully gathered a section and started plaiting it."I wish my hair was long and pretty like yours," she said. "But Daddy told me I can't have long hair if I want to be an engineer."

"He has a point," Steve said. "You wouldn't want your hair getting caught in all the machinery."

Tanya snorted as she looped a pink ribbon at the end of the braid. "My hair's not that long. But Daddy still thinks I should cut it shorter. And I don't want to. If I cut it any shorter I'll look like a boy."

"We can't have that," Steve said with a smile.

"That's probably what he wants," she said darkly. "He probably wants me to look like a boy because he wishes I was a boy."

"Oh, sweetheart," Steve said. He wanted so badly to tell her Howard loved her just the way she was, but the words just wouldn't come.

"You can't tell me it's not true," Tanya said, chin raised defiantly. "Daddy keeps telling me how boys are better scientists than girls. And because I'm a girl, I'll never be able to invent anything the company could sell."

"That is not true," Steve said.

Thor gathered Tanya into his arms. "A definite falsehood," he agreed. "Women are as capable as men at producing greatness. Back on my home planet, one of my best warriors is a woman called Sif."

"Then why would Daddy tell me that?"

Steve stroked her hair. "Sometimes parents want their children to grow up to be just like them. And they forget that their children aren't them and will never be them. You will never be just like your father, but that's okay. You're going to be amazing in your own special way."

"Just wait until you get a little brother," Natasha said. "Then your father can have the son he always wanted and he'll leave you alone to do girly stuff."

Tanya shook her head. "Mommy and Daddy argue about it sometimes. Mommy says they should try to have another baby because maybe it'll be a boy this time. But Daddy says it could be another girl and it'll make a bad situation worse."

Steve rolled his eyes. Eventually Howard was going to overcome his stupid fears and Tony would be born. But he wasn't so sure that was really going to be a good thing for Tanya. If Howard really resented having a daughter that much, was he going to send her off to boarding school and never speak of her again? Otherwise, Tony's sister should have been mentioned in his file.

Tanya finished Thor's look with a floral headband and a heavy application of gold eyeshadow. "Now it's Bucky's turn."

Bucky eagerly settled onto the floor. "Don't go easy on me. I want to look ten times prettier than Thor when you're done."

"You're going to be just as pretty as he is," Tanya said firmly. She twisted a section of Bucky's hair and secured it with a butterfly clip. "A different pretty, but still just as good."

Steve smiled as Tanya went around the room, giving everyone on the team a makeover. He didn't have enough hair to really style, so Tanya just stuck clips in his hair and painted his nails blue. Even Clint finally gave in and allowed Tanya to paint his fingernails turquoise.

By the time Tanya was finished with everyone's looks, Steve noticed her yawning. "It's getting late," he said. "Probably time to head to bed."

"But I'm tired," Tanya whined. "And bed is so far away."

"Fear not, little one," Thor said. "You shall be carried off to bed like a princess." He gathered her into his arms. "Now, where have you chosen to spend the night?"

"Floor Twenty-Nine," Bucky said proudly.

Ah. It figured.

"You realize Bucky and I are sharing that floor, right?" Steve asked.

When he first brought Bucky into the Tower, he had given him a room on his floor so he could keep an eye on him and be just a few feet away if he woke screaming from nightmares. And Bucky had just never been interested in moving out of that room. Steve didn't really blame him. What was he going to do with a whole floor to himself?

"I know," Tanya said cheerfully. "Bucky told me. That way I get to live next to two awesome people instead of just one."

"That's sweet," Natasha said. "But if the boys start bothering you with their snoring, you're always welcome on my floor."

Bucky stuck out his tongue. "Nice try, but we don't snore." He motioned towards the elevator. "Come on, Tanya. You'll like it on our floor."

They left Natasha and Clint giggling together as they cleaned up the makeover supplies and headed upstairs to Floor Fifty-Nine.

"Here you are, little one," Thor said, lowering Tanya down in the doorway of the room she pointed to. "I will leave you in the care of our good Captain and the Sergeant."

"Thanks, Thor." She stood on her tiptoes to kiss his cheek. "You're the coolest."

Bucky pushed open the door to the bedroom and gestured for her to make her way inside. "After you, kiddo."

She hesitated, eyes wide. "Am I really allowed to sleep in here? There's so much cool stuff in here." She reached out to touch the base of the vintage lamp and then quickly yanked her hand back. "I don't want to break anything."

"You won't," Steve assured her. "You're a very thoughtful little girl and I know you'll be careful."

"But if I do break something," she pressed. "If it was an accident and-"

"Not a big deal," Steve said. "I don't care about any of this stuff. A friend of ours just decorated all the rooms real nice so they wouldn't be plain and empty. If you don't like the furniture and you want us to get you something-"

"No," Tanya said quickly. "I love it." She put her hands down on the edge of the mattress and vaulted up onto the bed. "I love how huge this bed is." She rolled from one side to the other. "So much bigger than my bed."

"Good," Steve said. "I'm glad you're comfortable." He tucked her in and reached for the light switch. "Good-night, Tanya."

"Wait!" Tanya said suddenly. "I don't want to go to sleep. Because then I'll wake up and you'll still be missing and Bucky will be dead and Thor will be in my big book of mythology and everyone else won't exist and today will have been just a dream."

"It's not a dream," Bucky said. "We're all really here."

"You just think that," she insisted. "How would you know whether you're part of my dream or not?"

Steve sighed. "This isn't a dream and I can prove it to you." He gently pinched her arm.

"Ow," she said. She glared at him accusingly. "That hurt."

"Which means you're not dreaming," Steve said. "You don't feel anything in your dreams, do you?"

Tanya narrowed her eyes and pursed her lips. "I guess you're right."

Steve patted her head. "So get some sleep. We'll all still be here in the morning. I promise."

"Okay," Tanya said quietly. "Good-night."

Steve smiled as she snuggled down under the covers. This time, when he reached for the light switch, she was already snoring.


	3. Chapter 3

The next morning, Steve got up as usual for his early morning run. When he returned, Tanya was sitting at the kitchen counter, eating a piece of toast smeared with jam.

She lit up when she saw him, jumping up from the counter and throwing her arms around his legs. "It wasn't a dream," she said excitedly. "You really are still here."

"Of course I am," Steve said. He stroked her hair. "I promised you, didn't I?"

"And Captain America always keeps his promises," Tanya said happily. "Because he's a man of his word. Daddy said so."

"Well, I try not to make promises I know I can't keep," Steve said. Which was why he had never promised Bucky he would stop getting into trouble. Because they both knew that would never happen.

Almost as if he had heard Steve's thoughts, Bucky appeared behind the counter. "What about your promise to Peggy?"

"That was different," Steve said. "It was just wishful longing on both our parts. We both knew I wasn't coming back, so what harm was there in talking about all the things we would do if I could?"

"Uh-huh. Sure. You two didn't set up a date to meet afterward or anything. Because then that would mean you would promise to be there and that would be silly."

"What do you care, anyway? Jealous that I didn't make you any last promises before I went down in the ice?"

Bucky snorted derisively. "Why would I be? If you chose some dumb dame-"

"You take that back," Tanya said indignantly. "Peggy Carter is amazing. She's a secret agent working at SHIELD."

Steve smiled. "I know. She works with your father."

"Daddy doesn't get along with her very well," Tanya confided in a loud whisper. "I hear them arguing all the time over the phone and he said she slapped him once."

"Well, he probably deserved it."

Tanya sighed dreamily. "I want to be just like her when I grow up. I'll wear red lipstick and heels and be the coolest SHIELD agent in the whole wide world." She put up her fists. "And I'll defeat all the bad guys who think they can take me on."

Steve chuckled. "Of course you will."

Tanya's expression faltered. "Daddy says good little girls don't wear lipstick. And especially not bright red. Because red is only for harlots."

"Ha," Natasha said as she swung herself up into one of the seats at the counter. "I wear red all the time and nobody's ever called me a harlot. A bitch, maybe, but never a harlot."

"And that one asshole who called you a skank," Clint said, following close behind her.

"Can we not curse around the child?" Steve said. "We want to set a good example for her."

"It's okay," Tanya said cheerfully. "Daddy curses all the time. He says it's a damn shame that he doesn't have a worthy successor for the company."

Natasha pursed her lips. "Your Daddy doesn't know what he's talking about. I'll tell you what, if you pick out one of my lipsticks, I'll make you up real pretty and I promise you won't look like a harlot."

"I'll look just like Peggy?" Tanya asked excitedly.

"Yes, just like Peggy. Now, I have a lot more make-up than just the case I brought down last night. There's drawers and cupboards full of stuff. So Clint is going to take you upstairs to have a look and then when you bring it back down here, I'll make you over."

"What?" Clint protested. "Why me?"

"Because I haven't finished my breakfast yet." Natasha casually took a bite of an apple.

Clint huffed. "Can't it wait?"

"Nope. I have a lot of make-up so let her look through everything before she makes her choice," Natasha said with a meaningful look.

Clint looked annoyed, but his expression softened as Tanya slipped her hand in his and said, "Lead the way."

Once Clint and Tanya were out of earshot, Natasha leaned in closer. "What are we going to do about this speech Tony's supposed to make?" she asked quietly. "Bruce is good, but I doubt he'll have this thing put together in a week all by himself."

"Yeah," Steve said. "I don't think so either. So, we've got to come up with some sort of excuse for him. Maybe some urgent business that would take him out of the country for a little while."

Natasha narrowed her eyes. "You realize he's giving his speech for Stark Industries, right? They would know there was no urgent business trip."

"Avengers business, then? We can pretend he got hurt in battle and can't make his speech because he's hospitalized."

Natasha shook her head. "The press would go searching for him and uncover that lie pretty quickly. And I'd really rather not upset Rhodey and Pepper."

Steve shrugged. "We could ask Pepper for help. She's probably really good at covering for Tony when he has to go on a mission."

"Do you really want to tell her you managed to lose Tony somewhere in the past and we have no idea when we'll get him back?"

Steve winced. "Well, when you put it like that."

"She's going to find out eventually," Bucky said. "And then she's going to be pissed no one told her what was going on."

Steve sighed. He was probably right. "So then what would we tell her?"

Natasha shrugged. "That Tony's trapped on the other side of this portal until Bruce gets the machine fixed. Actually, I'd better tell her. You'll look concerned and Pepper won't believe for a second that we'll actually get him back."

Steve rolled his eyes.

"The good news is she has a company to run," Bucky said. "So while she probably will drop everything and fly across the country to yell at us for losing Tony, she can't stay here hovering around until we find him. Eventually she'll have to go back to work."

"And so will we. We're going to have to tell Hill and Fury that Tony's missing. And we'll probably have to put Falcon or Rhodey on stand-by for any missions. And I'm not looking forward to telling Rhodey Tony's missing either."

Bucky put a finger to his lips and they all fell silent. A few moments later Tanya came skipping back into the room, dragging Clint behind her. "I found a lipstick," she said proudly. "It's called 'Red Hot'."

"Good choice," Natasha said. She patted the empty seat on her right. "Come sit by me."

Tanya scrambled up into the seat and tilted her chin up so Natasha could get a good angle.

"You have a good face for make-up," Natasha said as she outlined Tanya's lips."Nice, full mouth. Big eyes. You're going to be a heartbreaker when you grow up, kid."

Somehow, Tanya managed to stay still and not say anything in response while Natasha finished putting on her lipstick, but her eyes were noticeably brighter.

Finally, Natasha stepped back and surveyed her work. "Looks good on you." She snapped a picture with her phone and held it out to Tanya.

"Whoa," Tanya said, reverently stroking a finger over the screen. "That's really me?"

"It really is," Natasha said with a smile. "You don't look like a harlot, do you?"

"No," Tanya said. She grinned widely. "I look just like a secret agent." She made some wild, uncoordinated kicks and punches, almost falling off the stool in her vigor.

"Careful," Steve said.

"Sorry," Tanya said sheepishly. She hopped off the stool. "I'm going to be right back. Gotta put on some crimefighter clothes. You guys stay here."

"Okay," Steve said with an indulgent smile. "We'll be waiting for your return."

Clint took up the spot Tanya vacated. "So, what did you guys talk about while I was gone?"

"Telling Pepper and Rhodey," Natasha said lightly.

Clint groaned. "Do we have to?"

"You know how we hate it when people keep secrets from us. Do we really want to be just as bad?"

"I hate always having to do the right thing," Clint whined. "It usually comes back to bite me in the ass. No good deed and all that."

"And if we don't do the right thing, that'll come back and bite us in the ass, too."

Bucky laced his hands behind his head. "Do we want Pepper to yell at us now or later? That's the conundrum."

"She won't yell at us if we're up front with her about what's going on," Natasha insisted.

"Shut up, I hear her coming back," Clint hissed.

Steve strained to listen, and sure enough, he could hear the sound of humming rapidly getting closer. And then Tanya burst back into the room.

She had on her yellow sundress with black tights, white socks over her hands, and a sweater tied around her neck.

"That's some outfit you've got on there," Bucky said, eyebrows raised as he took it all in.

"I've got a cape," Tanya said proudly. "Just like Thor's." She struck a heroic pose with her hands on her hips. "Uh, where is Thor anyway? I want to show him."

"Last I saw him, he was heading down to the lab Bruce move a few things," Natasha said.

"Awesome," Tanya said. She darted in the direction of the elevator.

"Lucky Bruce," Bucky said. "She'd live down there if she could."

"Bruce would probably rather she didn't. How is he going to get anything done with her hanging around all the time?" Clint shook his head. "We're not going to get Tony back for months."

"I'll make sure that doesn't happen," Steve said. He pushed back from the counter. "I'll go see if I can herd Thor and Tanya back upstairs so Bruce can concentrate."

"Good luck," Natasha said with a chuckle.

Steve didn't really need luck. When the lab doors swished open, Thor was nowhere to be seen. But Bruce was bent over one of the lab tables, studying something under a microscope and Tanya was on Tony's side of the lab, bouncing a tennis ball and giggling as the bots tried to catch the ball in their claws.

Steve lowered his voice as he approached Bruce's table. "She's not distracting you, is she? I can take her for a few hours so you can get some work done."

Bruce shook his head. "No need. She's actually helping me focus." He made another adjustment to the microscope. "I'm so used to having noise in the background now that the silence is unsettling."

Steve nodded. He could understand that. The quiet would only be another reminder that Tony wasn't with them at the moment.

"Speaking of silence," Bruce said. "Jarvis, could you bring up the new periodic table of elements song?"

"Yes!" Tanya said delightedly as the opening chords filled the lab. "I love this song."

Steve smiled as she pranced around the lab, singing along with the song.

"There's hydrogen and helium, then lithium, beryllium. Boron, carbon everywhere. Nitrogen all through the air. With oxygen so you can breathe. And fluorine for your pretty teeth."

"She's only heard the song yesterday and I think she's already memorized the whole thing," Bruce said with a fond smile. "She's very advanced for her age."

"Genius does tend to run in the family."

Bruce's smile faded a little. "I wish I knew what happened to her. There's no record of her anywhere and you can't hide a girl this bright away forever. She would have made something newsworthy sooner or later. But there's nothing. I'm afraid…" He hesitated and his gaze flicked over to Tanya.

"Yeah," Steve said. "Me too." His heart hurt to think of this lively little girl dying somehow before she could reach her potential.

"Do you think Tony at least got a chance to meet her?"

"I'd like to think so," Steve said. Jarvis had said Tanya was wearing clothing from the seventies and Tony was born pretty early on in that decade. Howard could potentially change his mind about having another kid any day now. But then what would happen to Tanya?

The song ended and Tanya wandered over to Bruce's bench. "Why do you guys look so sad and serious?"

"It's nothing," Steve said. "Just boring adult stuff."

"Anything I can help with?" Tanya pulled herself up onto the tabletop and sat on the edge, swinging her feet back and forth. "I know how to balance a checkbook, file taxes, calculate compound interest. You know, all the boring adult stuff Mommy and Daddy don't like doing."

"You know how to file taxes?" Bruce said in astonishment. "Actually, never mind. Of course you know how to make those calculations." He coughed delicately. "Unfortunately, the tax code has changed a lot since your time."

Tanya shrugged. "I could still balance your checkbook."

"Why are your parents having you file their taxes?" Steve asked. He was pretty sure that had to be illegal.

"It's part of my math class," Tanya said cheerfully. "Mommy gives me all the papers to work with and Daddy looks everything over when I'm done. Daddy says there's no point teaching me anything unless I know how to apply it to real life."

"So you're homeschooled," Steve said slowly.

Tanya nodded and picked up a magnifying glass, squinting into it. "It's safer that way. Daddy says bad guys might try to kidnap me on the way to school. Because they think I'd know things about his work. Even though I don't. But bad guys are usually dumb."

"Right," Steve said. "Just like in the movies."

Tanya's eyes lit up. "Oooh, I bet you have so many cool movies in your collection. Dr. Banner told me there's movies about sea monsters and space and time travel and dinosaurs and people stuck in computers, but you probably wouldn't let me watch them."

Steve's mouth twitched in amusement. "Did he now?"

"Err," Bruce said. "I might have cautioned her about the Matrix. It's not exactly appropriate for children."

"Ah." Steve put a hand on Tanya's shoulder. "I'll tell you what. How about we watch a few National Geographic documentaries first and then we'll have Jarvis recommend some appropriate movies?"

"Compiling a list as we speak," Jarvis said. "And might I suggest a few episodes of Bill Nye the Science Guy?"

"Perfect," Steve said.

Tanya beamed as she slid off the bench. "I can't wait to see everything. Today is going to be awesome."


	4. Chapter 4

As hard as it was to believe, Tanya had gone through six episodes of Bill Nye and every single Magic School Bus episode Steve had been able to find on Youtube in five days. And then she had moved on to a couple episodes of Mythbusters Clint had recorded. Somehow, in between all that, she still managed to find time to run around in the backyard chasing Thor with a squirt gun, do some experiments down in the lab with Bruce, and practice ballet moves with Natasha. Steve was exhausted just thinking about what full days the kid had, but then again, she was a Stark. And Tony had always seemed to accomplish more in a day than anybody else did in a week.

And if Tony had been there, maybe the portal would have been repaired within the week. But as it was, the deadline for Tony's speech was rapidly approaching and Bruce didn't have everything ready.

Reluctantly, they all agreed that they would have to call Pepper.

After setting Tanya up in the lab, Natasha put the phone on speaker so they all got the privilege of hearing her yell at each of them in turn for losing Tony. Before hanging up, she insisted she was flying out to be there first thing in the morning.

"Well, that went well," Bucky said.

Bruce grimaced. "She's going to kill us."

"I'm not too worried," Clint said. "When she gets here, I'll make sure to point out that Steve was the one who really lost him." He patted Steve on the shoulder. "Sorry, buddy, but better you than me."

Steve sighed. "For the last time, it wasn't my fault."

"Sure it wasn't. Tony fell into the portal, you reached in to save him and pulled her out instead. Nobody's saying you meant to do it, but it was still your fuck-up."

"I never let go of Tony's hand," Steve insisted. "So it doesn't make any sense. Something happened. Something outside of my control. So I don't think I should be getting blamed for this."

"We shouldn't be blaming anybody for this except that Hydra scientist," Natasha said. "It was his portal, his evil scheme. We can talk about how things could have gone differently all day, but that's not going to help us get Tony back."

Bruce nodded. "We have a terrible record of infighting when things start going wrong. But we really should be working together towards a common goal."

"Getting Tanya back to her time."

"I can't do anything about that," Clint said. "But I can keep the girl entertained. I'm volunteering right now for movie-watching duty. She needs to see Big Hero 6."

Steve nodded slowly. Clint had mentioned earlier how similar the portal had looked to the one in the movie. Tanya would probably like seeing someone in the movies go through the same thing she had.

"Team movie night?" Natasha asked with a quirked eyebrow.

That's right. Before Tony had been sucked into the portal, they had talked about seeing the movie for team movie night.

"Shit," Clint said, averting his eyes. "My bad. We should wait until Tony gets back."

"No," Steve said decisively. "Tanya needs to see it more than Tony right now. We'll watch it again when he gets back."

If Tony would actually be willing to watch it. He was always disappearing when they watched Disney movies, Pixar movies, basically anything rated any lower than PG-13. And Steve didn't really understand why Tony was so opposed to "kid movies". It was nice to be transported to another world after especially bad missions, a world where he didn't have to worry about villain attacks or seeing people he loved getting hurt in front of him. And animated movies were the best for helping Steve get out of his own head.

"I'll let her know," Natasha said with a smile. "Tonight?"

"Might as well. We're all here." Steve surveyed the rest of the team still gathered around in the den. "And I think we could all use a break after the afternoon we've had." He looked meaningfully at the phone.

"I'm all for it," Bruce said. "We could all use a little stress relief."

"Good. I'll go get the girl."

Tanya was of course, absolutely delighted to be called up to watch a movie in the den after dinner. She bounced up and down on the couch cushions, shifting from one person's lap to another, until she finally sprawled out on the floor, chin propped up on her hands.

But she was on her feet when the credits started rolling, dancing along to the music.

"Did you like the movie?" Clint asked.

"Loved it," Tanya said. "Good choice." She held her hand out for a fist bump, only to pull away at the last moment and wiggle her fingers in the air. "Lalalala." She squealed and clutched her hands to her chest. "Oh, Beymax is the best. I want one so bad."

Bucky chuckled. "If Tony were here, I'm sure he'd build you one." His expression drooped. "If only Tony were here."

Tanya wrinkled her nose. "Who's Tony?"

Bruce cleared his throat. "Another teammate of ours. He's, uh, away at the moment. I really wish you could have met him. He's an engineer. I'm sure you two would have had a lot of fun working on stuff together."

"Yeah," Tanya said, her mouth twisting wistfully. "But it's okay. I'm glad I had a chance to meet the rest of you. You're all so amazing and you're almost like a family to me. And if you were really my family, Cap and Bucky would be my daddies."

"Two dads?" Clint asked with a raised eyebrow. "Getting greedy, aren't we?"

Natasha gave him a scathing look.

"I just can't pick between them," Tanya said. "I like them both so much."

"Right. You just can't pick between those two."

"You can be in my family, too. You can be my big brother."

"Er, I hate to break it to you," Clint said in a low voice, "but I am way too old to be your brother."

"Shut up, son," Bucky said. "Don't you know I'm 86 now?"

"Oh, I think you're a little older than that now," Steve said dryly.

Bucky waved a hand dismissively. "I'm too old to keep track of how old I am."

Steve gave Clint a sympathetic look. "I know you think of me and Buck as the young ones, but technically, we really are old enough to be your parents. You're really one of the youngest ones here, if you think about it."

"Huh," Clint said thoughtfully.

"And Natasha can be my big sister," Tanya said happily.

"Of course," she said with a smile. "I've always wanted a little sister."

"And then…uh, Bruce can be my smart uncle and Thor can be my cool uncle."

Clint cackled and playfully shoved Bruce's shoulder. "You hear that, man? You're not awesome enough to be the cool uncle."

"Funny," Bruce said. "I don't remember her saying you were the cool big brother."

Clint opened his mouth and then closed it again. "Oh, we are going to have words later," he said.

Bucky put an arm over Bruce's shoulder. "Hey, don't talk about your uncle that way. It's cool if I claim you for my side of the family, right, Bruce?"

"Uh, sure."

"Okay, Bruce is my bro," Bucky announced. "Steve, you get Thor."

"I will be honored to be counted as your brother-in-arms," Thor said. "Are we engaging in epic combat now?"

Steve put his head in his hands as Bucky began explaining to Thor that being family didn't usually mean trying to kill each other.

Maybe they were getting a little carried away with this family thing, but from the way Tanya kept giggling into her hands, they had to be doing something right.

"You know what?" Clint said. "I think there's a Big Hero 6 video game somewhere."

"What's that?" Tanya asked.

"What?" Clint gasped. "You don't know what a video game is? Boy, your parents sure kept you sheltered. Come on, guys. We need to give her a crash course in gaming, stat."

Steve took that as his cue to start cleaning up the bowls of movie popcorn and taking them into the kitchen to wash.

Over the sound of running water, he heard Bucky shout, "Bam! That's how you do it, son" and Clint shouting back, "You're not my real dad!" followed by peals of laughter from the rest of the room.

He shook his head with a smile. Everyone really was getting along just like a family now.

A little after nine, Steve broke into their gaming session to send Tanya to bed.

"But we were just getting to the good part," she complained.

Steve gave the screen a quick glance. "Mario will still be here in the morning."

"Absolutely," Clint said. He began walking Tanya through the steps to save her game.

And then Steve hoisted her onto his shoulders to carry her up to her bedroom.

"Today was awesome," Tanya declared as she jumped down onto the bed.

Steve smiled. "I'm glad. We're going to have another exciting day planned tomorrow."

Tanya beamed as she rolled herself up in the blankets. "I can't wait."

"Sleep tight," Steve said. "We'll see you in the morning." He bent down to kiss her forehead.

"I really like it here," Tanya said quietly. "Can I stay with you guys forever?"

Steve's smile faltered. "I'd love for you to live with us," he said. "But I can't make you any promises."

"Why not? You like me and I like all of you. You can adopt me and I promise I'll be so good and listen

to everything you say."

"We have to think about your real mommy and daddy. They're probably missing you and wanting you to come back home."

"I doubt it," Tanya said. "They'd never miss me as much as you would."

Steve stroked her hair. "You know who else would miss you? Your Jarvis."

"Yeah, okay," Tanya said with a sigh. "Jarvis would definitely miss me. He said I'm the smartest little girl he's ever met and a genuine pleasure to have around."

"Exactly," Steve said. "You don't want to leave Jarvis all alone with your mean, boring parents do you?"

"No," Tanya said reluctantly.

"That's my girl." Steve pasted on a smile. "Try not to think about it too much. Just enjoy it here while you can." He cleared his throat. "Well, goodnight."

He backed out of her room before he could make things worse.

It really was too bad they would have to send her back to her own time. But they needed Tony back. And Pepper would be furious if they tried to keep Tanya around any longer than they had to.

Oh god, they were meeting with Pepper in the morning. He cringed just thinking about it. Maybe he would have to send Tanya back down to play in the lab for her own safety.


End file.
